Hide And Seek With The Facebook Algorithm

I’ve seen the post below at least 20 times over the past 2 weeks or so on different friends’ Facebook pages. With my social marketer head on, I don’t think it’ll ‘beat the algorithm’. Surely Facebook will still stick to a narrow selection of friends but the selection may change slightly. Here’s the post in full,

OK – I’m jumping on the bandwagon too. Fighting this Facebook algorithm change, because I’m noticing I am not seeing so many of my friends’ posts😐. Here’s how to avoid hearing from the same 26 FB friends and nobody else. This post explains why we don’t see all posts from our friends. Funny, thought if I followed you on Facebook I would see what you post. Not anymore. Your Newsfeed recently shows only posts from the same few people, about 25, repeatedly the same, because Facebook has a new algorithm. Their system chooses the people who will read your post. However, I would like to choose for myself, Therefore, I ask you all a favor – If you are reading this message leave me a quick comment, a “hello”, a sticker, whatever you want, so you will appear in my news feed‼️Otherwise Facebook chooses who to show me and I don’t need Facebook to choose my friends!

Please copy and paste on your wall so you can have more interaction with all your contacts and bypass the system. That’s why we don’t see all posts from our friends.😮 Thanks for the heads up from those who already copied and pasted the above. Hold your finger down anywhere in this post and “copy” will pop up. Click “copy”. Then go to your page, start a new post on your page, then put your finger anywhere in the blank field. “Paste” will pop up and click paste. Hurrah, you’ve just copied and pasted!

I think the fact that so many people are posting this (20 of my friends is a very tiny sample study but I only have 80 friends on Facebook following a cull last month) is an indicator that we are now fed up with only seeing posts from a narrow selection of friends. Many people, myself included, signed up to Facebook many moons ago to keep up with friends who live on the other side of the globe or who have moved away and want to keep in contact. That is now being spoiled and our online interactions are becoming fewer and far between due to the new algorithms.

Another thing to note, my friends are complaining that they are seeing lots of posts from groups but not personal posts from friends. I know Mark Zuckerberg announced that he wanted to bring about a sense of community again by using groups but it is proving to be at the expense of personal relationships online.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Mr Zuckerberg has had enough of Facebook and is trying to run it into the ground and move on to something new. It’s how I’d do it if I was in that position, he’s giving us a lesson in how to dismantle a brand.